- Go beyond cryo-confocal: Harness spectral signatures for deeper cellular insights.
- Correlate across scales: Integrate cryo light and electron imaging for richer data.
- Bridge modalities: See how X-ray tomography connects to cryo-EM analysis.
Agenda
December 4, 2025 12:00 PM EST | 6:00 PM CEST
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Attomicroscopy Imaging of Electron Motion in Materials Science
Ultrafast Electron Diffraction and Microscopy imaging have been demonstrated to be pivot tools for imaging atomic motion in real time and space 1,2. The generation of a few hundred femtoseconds electron pulses enabled recording movies for molecular and atomic motion 3. However, the technical challenges in electron pulse compression have limited the temporal resolution of electron imaging experiments to a hundred femtoseconds. Today, I will present our recent work and how we achieved the attosecond (attosecond =10-18 second) temporal resolution in the transmission electron microscope4 to establish what we so-called "attomicroscope". The attomicroscope is considered the world's fastest electron microscope, which enables us to image and control the electron motion dynamics in graphene. I will present our attosecond electron diffraction results, which carry the signature of the electron density distribution dynamics in the reciprocal space at different time instants and connect it with the electron motion in real space. The demonstrated attomicroscopy imaging tool opens the avenue to study electron motion in neutral matter and promises new electron imaging applications in material sciences, physics, chemistry, and biochemistry4-6. In material sciences, one of the most critical applications of attomicroscopy electron imaging is the capability to connect the light-induced electron dynamics and the material's morphology. This connection builds the bridge between the physics findings and the engineering applications and helps to develop ultrafast optoelectronics. As proof-of-principle, I will present how understanding electron dynamics in graphene by attomicroscopy imaging empowered us to generate, log, and control light-induced current in a graphene phototransistor and demonstrate the attosecond current switching with petahertz speed7.
Mohammed Hassan
Associate Professor of Physics and Optical Sciences @ University of Arizona
December 5, 2025 8:00 AM EST | 2:00 PM CET
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From millimeters to molecules with fast 3D electron microscopy
Biological systems are characterized by complex multi-scale structural relationships spanning from the biomolecular level to the scale of organs or organisms. Electron microscopy (EM) is key for imaging this structural complexity, but providing the larger scale context is hampered by throughput limitations. Also, identification and targeting of specific regions of interest can be difficult due to a lack of molecular specificity. We use light microscopy integrated in scanning EM to lift barriers in microscopy and develop new methods that utilize the strengths of both microscopy techniques. Here, I will show how we use light-optics based detection to enable scanning transmission EM with 64 beams in parallel. We use the drastically improved acquisition rate for array tomography: tiled acquisitions on multiple serially collected thin sections. Stitching and 3D alignment then leads to volumetric reconstructions of many individual cells allowing comparative studies on cellular ultrastructure, e.g. after 3D segmentation. The multi-beam EM approach thus leads to large, reconstructed volumes with high resolution and contrast obtained in feasible acquisition times, allowing to zoom in and out on biology from millimeters down to nanometer length scales.
Jacob Hoogenboom
Professor of Light and Electron Microscopy @ Delft University of Technology
December 5, 2025, 11:00 AM EST | 5:00 PM CET
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Advancing Cryo Workflows for Cellular Discovery
Join leading experts as they spotlight advanced microscopy workflows that reveal the unseen. Discover how to refine every step of your cryo workflow -- from specimen preparation to imaging -- to preserve native structures, minimize artifacts, and uncover the details that drive cellular discovery. In this session, you'll learn how to:
Cryo specimen preparation is revolutionizing cell biology by maintaining near-native fidelity. Achieving artifact-free samples requires precision at every stage—and this spotlight will show you how.
Hear from experts at EMBL, the Pasteur Institute, Biozentrum Basel, and Leica Microsystems as they share practical solutions for optimizing instrumentation like STELLARIS Cryo, maintaining cryogenic conditions across scales, and combining complementary imaging techniques to extract more meaningful data.
Push the limits of resolution and uncover the hidden details within your cells.